Kaspersky CEO says he takes the company out of Russia if the country asks for espionage

Eugene Kaspersky, founder and chief executive of Kaspersky Lab, said the company never received any requests from Russian intelligence services to spy on targets in the West. If such a request were made, his company would leave Russia, he says. The suspicion that Kaspersky maintains hauls with the Russian intelligence provoked alerts and actions of US authorities in 2016. The antivirus software was still accused of finding and removing files. The wave of skepticism over Kaspersky culminated in the decision by the United States Department of Homeland Security to prevent government agencies from using Kaspersky products. “They never asked us to spy on people,” Chief Executive Eugene Kaspersky told reporters in London when asked if Russian intelligence had already asked him to help them spy on the West. “If the Russian government comes to me and asks for anything wrong, or my employees, I will take the business from Russia,” the executive said. Kaspersky said the company was under attack by the US media and the US government. And he acknowledged that such attacks hurt the company. Revenue in the US will be around 5 to 8 percent lower in the current fiscal year than last year due to the restriction to business in the country, the executive said. Revenue in Europe is expected to remain stable, while revenue in the rest of the world will continue to grow in double digits, he predicted.